Tom Barry

Pamela D. Anthony, dean of students at Iowa State University, has been named SMU’s vice president for student affairs effective February 1, 2016.

“As SMU’s new vice president for student affairs, Pamela Anthony brings varied experience in all aspects of programming and resources supporting the development of students,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “She has shown leadership in particular on issues related to student well-being, academic enrichment beyond the classroom, and multicultural affairs. She exhibits a dedication to students that will contribute greatly to improving the campus experience that we cherish as a critical part of the educational enterprise. I look forward to welcoming her to the University’s leadership team during this special time in our 100-year history.”

As dean of students at Iowa State since August 2012, Dr. Anthony has been responsible for supervising programs and services including academic support, multicultural student affairs, LGBT student support, judicial affairs, fraternity and sorority life, women’s programs, student legal services, student disability resources, recreation services, and parent and family involvement, among others. She also serves as chair of the university’s Critical Incident Response Team, Sexual Misconduct Leadership Committee and Student Affairs Diversity Committee, as well as co-chair of its Academic Enrichment Subcommittee and Student Experience Enhancement Council.

“I am beyond excited to be selected as the vice president for student affairs at a world-class institution in a world-class city,” Dr. Anthony said. “SMU offers a vibrant campus life experience, intentional opportunities for student engagement, and evidence that learning happens everywhere. I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues to enhance and create innovative partnerships within academic and student affairs that prioritize student success.”

“My visit to campus and interactions with students, faculty, staff, and alumni only increased my respect for SMU,” she added. “I appreciate the confidence of President Turner and the support of the search committee, and I eagerly anticipate becoming a Mustang! Together, we will continue to shape world changers.”

She began her career in student life and development at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, where she served as area coordinator of residence life from 1996-98 and coordinator of multicultural affairs from 1997-2000.

Dr. Anthony also served as director of student activities at Spelman College from 2000-03. Her nine years of experience at Georgia State University included service as assistant dean and director of student life and leadership (2003-09) and as assistant dean of students (2009-12).

Dr. Anthony received her B.S. degree in speech pathology from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. She earned a Master of Education degree focusing on student personnel in higher education from the University of Georgia-Athens and a Ph.D. in educational policy studies from Georgia State University in Atlanta.

Dr. Anthony was selected after a nationwide search coordinated by a campus committee chaired by Tom Barry, vice president for executive affairs. She replaces Lori S. White, who joined Washington University in St. Louis as vice chancellor for students.

“Dr. Anthony has been an outstanding leader in her role as dean of students at Iowa State University,” said ISU President Steven Leath. “She’s been instrumental in our efforts to enhance Iowa State’s reputation for providing a first-rate student experience, and I thank her for her dedicated service. She will bring a wealth of experience and expertise in student affairs to Southern Methodist University and will certainly be a tremendous asset to the institution.”

Thomas E. Barry, who has served as SMU’s vice president for executive affairs since 1995, has announced his retirement from that position effective Dec. 31, 2015. He also has been a member of the marketing faculty in SMU’s Cox School of Business since 1970.

Soon after becoming SMU’s president in 1995, R. Gerald Turner created the vice presidency for executive affairs and appointed Barry to fill it, adding the position to his President’s Executive Council.

“When I came to SMU, I knew that much of my focus would be on preparing SMU and our constituencies for major gift campaigns because we had a critical need for academic resources and campus enhancements,” Turner said. “I wanted a strong administrative leader and experienced academic who knew the University well, who would dig into any project that needed attention, and would bring together teams of colleagues for new initiatives. One of these was to move our strategic planning process forward as the basis for resource development.”

Barry led development of the Master Plan of 1997-2015 to provide direction and cohesion to the physical evolution of the campus, including its expansion east of Central Expressway, as well as improvements to SMU-in-Taos, the University’s New Mexico campus. He worked with SMU architects, facilities staff and oversight committees to help coordinate the addition or renovation of more than 32 campus facilities funded by recent campaigns.

Working with SMU’s other vice presidents and deans, he shepherded development of SMU’s last three strategic plans, including Launching SMU’s Second Century (2016-2025), the new strategic plan to be voted on by SMU’s Board of Trustees at its December 2015 meeting. The strategic plans guided priorities for SMU’s two recent major gift campaigns, The Campaign for SMU: A Time to Lead (1997-2002) and SMU Unbridled: The Second Century Campaign (2008-2015). Together the campaigns raised more than $1.5 billion for scholarships, faculty and academic programs, facilities and the campus experience.

One of the most visible projects benefitting from Barry’s leadership was SMU’s quest to be the home of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. In December 2000, after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the election results, President Turner gave Barry his next major assignment: “You are going to become an expert on presidential libraries,” he said. Barry researched the 12 existing presidential libraries under the National Archives and Records Administration to learn how they are funded, structured and operated, including what relationships they have with universities. The information helped guide the content of SMU’s successful proposal. As a marketing expert, he was co-leader of the University’s recent branding research and message development.

“In these years of major gift campaigns, heightened outreach and centennial activities, SMU has been very fortunate to have Tom Barry’s quiet, persistent and substantive leadership,” President Turner said. “He labored primarily behind the scenes, but the results of his talents can be seen throughout campus. As a longtime professor of marketing in Cox School of Business, he brought a faculty perspective to administrative decision-making. Through his teaching and research, he has mentored literally thousands of students. I am personally very grateful for his steadfast service and will miss the integrity and candor of his counsel.”

Barry came to SMU in 1970 as visiting assistant professor of marketing and the next year was appointed to the tenure-track position of assistant professor of marketing. Within three years he was promoted to associate professor of marketing with tenure, and in 1979 rose to full professor. He served for two terms as chair of the Marketing Department and three times as associate dean for academic affairs in the Cox School. He has received numerous teaching awards in the Cox School and served on more than 100 University committees.

Throughout his service as an academic administrator, Barry has remained a prolific researcher, producing three books and more than 80 scholarly articles. He has been one of the most frequent contributors to the three leading advertising journals in the nation.

Barry received his Ph.D. in marketing from North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas) and his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in marketing from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, where he began his teaching career.

In January 2016 Barry will begin a sabbatical year with the option of returning to the Cox faculty.

In the future, marketing to U.S. seniors will become even more important as the group of those 65 years and older nearly doubles in size – from 37 million to 72 million by 2030.

There are already entire cottage industries marketing to them, whether in consumer goods, financial services or health care. International marketers want to know how to reach seniors as well. New research about segmenting Japanese seniors reveals that chronological age is not the best metric to use in segmenting this group, and this fact holds true for those marketing to Westerners, too.

For over 20 years, Marketing Professor Tom Barry of SMU’s Cox School of Business has been researching the senior market segment with co-author Stuart Van Auken of Florida Gulf Coast University, who specializes on the international side. This research builds on their prior work published in top journals. A focal point of the research is the notion of “cognitive” age, the age that one feels or sees oneself as.

“Cognitive age is one’s ‘feel age,’ that is how old you feel, which is both self-reported and scientifically measured,” says Barry. “You can measure this notion of cognitive age well both domestically and overseas.”

Generally those with a younger outlook than their actual age should evidence better health, which influences personal economics, life satisfaction, attitudes toward aging, and activities and level of participation in organizations.

The two groups which emerged from the study – the cognitively younger and the cognitively older – display tendencies geared toward these top activities: reading books, social club membership, shopping in department stores, dining out and taking photographs. A next level of popular activities were visiting art galleries or museums and using computers. The cognitively younger seniors were engaged in more activities than were the cognitively older seniors.

The message to marketers is to focus on feel age, not real age. “This study says natural age is not a good descriptor or discriminator upon which to base segments,” Barry says. “You see it all the time in varied demographic groupings like 29-40 year-old females, 55- 64 year-old married couples, etc. But there are so many psychological variations of age within those segments. We segment in this way because it is easy and we can.”